LIVING IS EASY WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED Big Winner At Spain's Oscars

Six Goyas landed in the laps of director David Trueba and his friends for Living Is Easy With Your Eyes Closed (Vivir Es Fácil Con Los Ojos Cerrados) on Sunday night in Madrid. The film won best picture, director, screenplay, actor, new actor, and soundtrack. Inspired by actual events in 1966, it's a comedy road movie about an English teacher obsessed with the Beatles. He drives to Almeria when he hears that John Lennon is acting in the comedy How I Won The War and en route picks up a teenager and a pregnant woman.

The other big winner with eight statues was Álex de la Iglesia's comedy Witching and Bitching (Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi), which dominated the technical categories. Best Foreign Spanish language nod went to the Venezuelan-Spanish co-production, Blue And Not So Pink (Azul Y No Tan Rosa.) It was probably the happiest and most genuine of acceptances of the night by director Miguel Ferrari, backed by what appeared to be half the cast and crew. Michael Haneke's Amour won best European film, while Juan José Campenella's Foosball (Futbolín) won best animated feature.

Throughout the gala, tongue-in-cheek references were made to the absence of the Culture Minister, José Ignacio Wert, the first time in the 28-year history of the awards that a Minister hasn't attended. Spain's film industry claims it's suffering from a steep rise in movie ticket taxes and a lack of financial incentives by the government. Outside the auditorium, various protestors against forced evictions, the closure of Coca-Cola factories throughout the country, and high unemployment braved the heavy rain.

See the trailer for Living Is Easy With Your Eyes Closed below, though without English subtitles.

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Considering the Spanish film academia's great dislike for the fantastic, I'm quite surprised at how many awards Las Brujas won. Then again, they were almost all technical. God forbid they recognize how great their national fantastic films are.

Amleth
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February 12, 2014 6:40 AM

I wouldn't say they dislike fantastic films. As far as I remember, every important production (Los Otros, El Laberinto del Fauno, El Orfanato...) has gotten a few awards. Then again, Spain is a country with a tradition of crappy comedies, turned intro a tradition of crappy horror films and then crappy comedies again. The Spanish academy is eager to show how important the country is culture-wise, so they tend to give more importance to pretentious french-like auteur movies or high production value Hollywood-like movies.